Learning, Innovation & Tech

Bombs & Breakthroughs

"Watching" Books or "Reading" TV? Alice In Wonderland & iPad

CJ Westerberg, April 22, 2010 9:00 PM

alice.jpg

What Do YOU Think?
Is iPad A Good Thing Or Bad For Kids' Reading? 
See 45 sec. Video Below

We at The Daily Riff like to make connections of various happenings to education.  Best selling author Daniel Pink would call it "symphony" or something like that  . . . or you may call it certifiable.  Either way, we're okay with it.

When it came to this Apple Youtube commercial (45 sec.) below for its iPad using Alice In Wonderland, it was more of a "rift" back at the ranch, rather than a riff.  In other words, no one here readily agreed.

Youtube illustrates how kids can experience actual reading "mashed" with a video-game-like experience.

Here were essentially two different perspectives.  What do YOU think?
 
  • Will it help kids like reading more? 
  • Or, does it "fill in the blanks" where imagination should be?

####

Odds & Ends:

  • Reviews about the iPad have been mixed for various reasons, such as this one about its inferior e-ink for longer text reading compared to e-readers, most specifically Kindle, so thereby being a "reading killer", but sure Apple will resolve that "flaw" in the next iteration or two.

  • Did you know that Alice In Wonderland's author, Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodson) was a math tutor and that the story has hidden math meanings throughout?

". . .In the mid-19th century, mathematics was rapidly blossoming into what it is today: a finely honed language for describing the conceptual relations between things. Dodgson found the radical new math illogical and lacking in intellectual rigor. In "Alice," he attacked some of the new ideas as nonsense -- using a technique familiar from Euclid's proofs, reductio ad absurdum, where the validity of an idea is tested by taking its premises to their logical extreme.

Early in the story, for instance, Alice's exchange with the Caterpillar parodies the first purely symbolic system of algebra . . ."

See full article from NY Times here.  Or, for a more in-depth mathematician's perspective,
see blog post from MAA's (Mathematical Association of America) Devlin's Angle here, "The Hidden Math Behind Alice In Wonderland" (main picture credit).

Video below:

  





 

  • I really like my ipad so much, its a little awkward to type on however it doesnt matter, the other features more then make up for it.

blog comments powered by Disqus
Now, keeping in mind these fourfold interests - interest in conversation, or communication; in inquiry, or finding out things; in making things or construction; and in artistic expression - we may say they are natural resources, the uninvested capital, upon the exercise of which depends the active growth of the child..
John Dewey, The School and Society, 1900
Follow The Daily Riff on Follow TDR on Twitter

find us on facebook

maui.John-Seely-Brown.JSB.serendipity.jpg

Conversations with John Seely Brown: Shaping Serendipity for Learning

CJ Westerberg, 04.11.2013

photo above: Maui"Conventional wisdom holds that different people learn in different ways.  Something is missing from that idea, however, so we offer a corollary:  Different People, when presented with exactly the same information in exactly the same way, will learn...

Read Post | Comments

Riffing good stories

connected.JSB.John-seely-brown.entrepreneurial learner. jpg.jpg

Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Learner

CJ Westerberg, 04.11.2013

John Seely Brown: Connected and Collective Learning (Part 2)

Read Post | Comments
comics.jpg

Weekend Funnies: "Going through a phase" Video

CJ Westerberg, 04.07.2013

Gabriel Iglesias' smart teenage son doesn't talk to him anymore. 2 Minute Video via Comedy Central

Read Post | Comments
high-school.paul-graham.jpg

High Schoolers: "What You'll Wish You'd Known"

CJ Westerberg, 04.06.2013

It's dangerous to design your life around getting into college

Read Post | Comments
jolt.stanford.car2.vertical.jpg

The Practical University?

CJ Westerberg, 04.06.2013

Musings on college: Visiting with high schoolers, David Brooks and Stanford University's new video series on MOOCs: " . . ."It's the beginning of a wholesale reorganization of teaching and learning in higher education."

Read Post | Comments
harry-potter.jpg

Weekend Light - Daniel Radcliffe Sings the Elements

CJ Westerberg, 04.05.2013

Harry Potter sings the periodic table of elements on the Graham Norton show with Colin Farrell, Rihanna...humor video

Read Post | Comments
HarryPotterBook.jpg

"The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination"

CJ Westerberg, 04.02.2013

JK Rowling, Harry Potter Author, Captivates Crowd With Harvard Commencement Speech

Read Post | Comments
graduation.Kirsten-olson.jpg

High School: Are the Kids Alright?

CJ Westerberg, 04.02.2013

"Long ago my son determined exactly how not to let the institution of school get in the way of his learning, and had explicit plans for choosing courses carefully so that he had ample time to attend local university lectures and participate in arts events."

Read Post | Comments
stop.red.facebook.jpg

"The Little Discussed Dark Side" of Public Education

CJ Westerberg, 04.02.2013

"We've completely distorted learning."

Read Post | Comments

More Featured Posts